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I'm currently at a school in California ranked in the 50s and I'm looking to transfer to a school in NYC. Does anyone know the possibility of transferring to either Fordham, NYU, or Columbia? I'm desperate to leave California and I'm hoping the prospects are good. I know I'm ranked somewhere towards the top of the class right now, but I'm not sure how grades from this semester are going to turn out. My grades for the first semester were:

Finals:
Contracts: A
Crim: A-

Midterms:
Torts: A
Property: A


I think my best shot is probably Fordham, but I've heard that they typically do not accept many transfers (between 15-30). Any insight would be great! Thanks.

I don't think a transfer to Fordham would be worth it unless you absolutely, desperately want to work in NYC. However, I think you have a pretty good shot at both CLS and NYU if you can keep your grades up.

Are you part time? I'm not sure I understand the grades you gave. Finals v. Midterms, etc.

You should have more than two final grades from first semester.

bhan87 wrote:I don't think a transfer to Fordham would be worth it unless you absolutely, desperately want to work in NYC. However, I think you have a pretty good shot at both CLS and NYU if you can keep your grades up.

I absolutely, desperately want to work in NYC. I know I'm probably giving up Law Review, scholarship, teacher relationships, friendships, etc., but I'm originally from NY and moved to CA for law school and hate it. So I'm willing to take anything.

lawfuture10 wrote:Are you part time? I'm not sure I understand the grades you gave. Finals v. Midterms, etc.

You should have more than two final grades from first semester.

No, I'm full time. My school is ridiculous and we have three full year courses (including Legal Writing) and 4 semester long courses.

pdimola wrote:

lawfuture10 wrote:Are you part time? I'm not sure I understand the grades you gave. Finals v. Midterms, etc.

You should have more than two final grades from first semester.

No, I'm full time. My school is ridiculous and we have three full year courses (including Legal Writing) and 4 semester long courses.

That's interesting.

Any idea what your school curves to? Right now looks like you're sitting on a 3.8+ GPA. If you're in the top 5%, you're going to be competitive at CLS and NYU, and a shoe in at Fordham.
If you're in the top 1-2%, or the top 1 or 2 students in your class, you're going to have a very good shot at both CLS and NYU.

if you keep up those grades, or somewhere close to it, you will get into CLS/NYU

lawfuture10 wrote:

pdimola wrote:

lawfuture10 wrote:Are you part time? I'm not sure I understand the grades you gave. Finals v. Midterms, etc.

You should have more than two final grades from first semester.

No, I'm full time. My school is ridiculous and we have three full year courses (including Legal Writing) and 4 semester long courses.

That's interesting.

Any idea what your school curves to? Right now looks like you're sitting on a 3.8+ GPA. If you're in the top 5%, you're going to be competitive at CLS and NYU, and a shoe in at Fordham.
If you're in the top 1-2%, or the top 1 or 2 students in your class, you're going to have a very good shot at both CLS and NYU.

My school curves at a B/3.1. I'm probably top 5-10% right now, but this semester has been rough so I'm expecting a slight decline.

pdimola wrote: My school curves at a B/3.1. I'm probably top 5-10% right now, but this semester has been rough so I'm expecting a slight decline.

If your school curves at a B/3.1, and an A = 4.0, then you're definitely better than top 5%.

Keep your grades up, its still early enough in the semester that if you kick it in the ass from here on out, you can repeat performance from last semester, then transfer back to NYC and get into C or N.

lawfuture10 wrote:

pdimola wrote: My school curves at a B/3.1. I'm probably top 5-10% right now, but this semester has been rough so I'm expecting a slight decline.

If your school curves at a B/3.1, and an A = 4.0, then you're definitely better than top 5%.

Keep your grades up, its still early enough in the semester that if you kick it in the ass from here on out, you can repeat performance from last semester, then transfer back to NYC and get into C or N.

Haha, thanks. The only problem is that my school gives out A++'s so the highest GPA you can get is a 4.67. They are uncommon, but still enough to have my worried. Which is why I guestimated top 5-10%.

pdimola wrote: Haha, thanks. The only problem is that my school gives out A++'s so the highest GPA you can get is a 4.67. They are uncommon, but still enough to have my worried. Which is why I guestimated top 5-10%.

That is insanity.

Its going to be difficult for you to predict your likelihood of getting into anywhere until your school actually ranks you.

Most registrar offices have cutoff charts after first semester that tell you what the top 10% cutoff was, top 20%, top 30.... If I were you I would go in and ask them for the cutoff numbers or tell them to at least give you a ball park range of your ranking.

A++? my head just exploded

fatduck wrote:A++? my head just exploded

I've never heard of such things.

I would protest.

... Unless I got one of course.

lawfuture10 wrote:

pdimola wrote: Haha, thanks. The only problem is that my school gives out A++'s so the highest GPA you can get is a 4.67. They are uncommon, but still enough to have my worried. Which is why I guestimated top 5-10%.

That is insanity.

Its going to be difficult for you to predict your likelihood of getting into anywhere until your school actually ranks you.

Most registrar offices have cutoff charts after first semester that tell you what the top 10% cutoff was, top 20%, top 30.... If I were you I would go in and ask them for the cutoff numbers or tell them to at least give you a ball park range of your ranking.

That's a good idea, I'll do that tomorrow.

fatduck wrote:A++? my head just exploded

And I'm inclined to call flame.

http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/201 ... anscr.html

Loyola does plan to award 4.667 points for these non-notable A++ grades, though, as opposed to the 4.333 that goes with the standard A+.

I don't think he explained it correctly though. I think these are only for A+ that were retroactively bumped up.

Prefacing this by saying I am a 0L.

If you want NYC then you shouldn't limit yourself to NYU/CLS/Fordham. Aim for schools with national reach where median can get you a job in NYC. It may mean delaying your return to NYC for a couple years but taking something like UPenn/UChi/etc will be better in the long run than transferring to Fordham.

Wholigan wrote:http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/201 ... anscr.html

Loyola does plan to award 4.667 points for these non-notable A++ grades, though, as opposed to the 4.333 that goes with the standard A+.

I don't think he explained it correctly though. I think these are only for A+ that were retroactively bumped up.

No, I explained it correctly. I'm a 1L and two of my friends received an A++ in two of their classes, so the retroactive bumping does not apply. They currently have GPA's of a 4.667 as 1Ls.

pdimola wrote:No, I explained it correctly. I'm a 1L and two of my friends received an A++ in two of their classes, so the retroactive bumping does not apply. They currently have GPA's of a 4.667 as 1Ls.

My mistake. I think the article didn't explain it correctly then. I have to think firms are going to view that as kind of bogus (unless of course, you are the one with the 4.667). They had a big official proceeding at my school about possibly taking away the A+ grade because some of the other schools in the area don't give an A+, or don't award a 4.33 for it and reportedly one person claimed a judge subtracted 0.33 from their GPA or something to equalize.

pdimola wrote:

Wholigan wrote:http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/201 ... anscr.html

Loyola does plan to award 4.667 points for these non-notable A++ grades, though, as opposed to the 4.333 that goes with the standard A+.

I don't think he explained it correctly though. I think these are only for A+ that were retroactively bumped up.

No, I explained it correctly. I'm a 1L and two of my friends received an A++ in two of their classes, so the retroactive bumping does not apply. They currently have GPA's of a 4.667 as 1Ls.

So, effectively, OP has 3 A- grades and a B+, yes?

pdimola wrote:

Wholigan wrote:http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/201 ... anscr.html

Loyola does plan to award 4.667 points for these non-notable A++ grades, though, as opposed to the 4.333 that goes with the standard A+.

I don't think he explained it correctly though. I think these are only for A+ that were retroactively bumped up.

No, I explained it correctly. I'm a 1L and two of my friends received an A++ in two of their classes, so the retroactive bumping does not apply. They currently have GPA's of a 4.667 as 1Ls.

This is hilarious.

Now the question to ask is which law school will breach the A+++ mark.

After looking at the OP, I was going to offer some advice as to where you probably were on the curve, but now I'm just confused.